All posts tagged Privacy

Vendors of privacy products geared toward consumers are broadening their efforts to address the business market.

At the gigantic Mobile World Congress in Barcelona starting March 2, Silent Circle will launch its privacy-centric Android smartphone, the Blackphone, as an enterprise product. The Blackphone, announced in 2014 as a consumer product,encrypts data stored on it as well as voice and text communications (if both sides of a conversation use it). It also lets users make calls and send data over virtual private networks rather than the Internet, with custom control over the data apps can access. Read More »

In an interview Thursday, Lenovo’s chief technology officer, Peter Hortensius, acknowledged that “we didn’t do enough” due diligence before installing Superfish, but that the company doesn’t believe laptop owners were harmed by the app. He said the company realized it needs to do more to respond to consumers’ concerns. Read More »

Google is opposing a proposal that would make it easier for law enforcement to get warrants to hack into computers, the latest skirmish between Silicon Valley and the U.S. government in the wake of Edward Snowden’s revelations about widespread spying.

Google’s beef is with a proposed change to a procedural rule for issuing federal search warrants. Now, law-enforcement agents that want to search property typically must get a warrant from a judge in the district where the property is located. Read More »

The Dutch government is reluctant to scrap the law for security reasons. Authorities are seeking to broaden surveillance powers following recent terrorist attacks in Paris and Copenhagen and a growing number of homegrown radical Muslims. Read More »

For $70 a month, you can enjoy AT&T’s ultrafast fiber-optic Internet access. For an additional $29 a month, you can avoid being tracked while doing it.

AT&T debuted its 1 gigabit-per-second service, called GigaPower by AT&T, in Austin, Texas, in 2013, and rolled it out Tuesday in Kansas City, Mo. But the service comes with a hitch: The company tracks users as they surf the Web. Customers who want to keep their browsing habits to themselves can pay a fee to opt out of being monitored. Read More »

Apple chief executive Tim Cook delivered a fiery speech at a White House summit on cybersecurity Friday, hammering those he said compromise the right to privacy and security of people around the world.

The speech sent a jolt through the summit, which up until Cook’s speech had consisted of pledges from government officials and business executives to work more closely together to stop breaches. Read More »

Germany’s leading telecommunications group said this week it keeps domestic Internet traffic within the country and sources key equipment from at least two suppliers. The steps are part of a series of privacy-protection measures Deutsche Telekom has introduced since large-scale wiretapping by intelligence agencies became public. Read More »

Internet-connected wearables, cars, thermostats, ad infinitum are all the rage in Silicon Valley. But those devices can come with security and privacy holes that leave consumers exposed, regulators warned.

In a much-anticipated report on the so-called-Internet of Things, the Federal Trade Commission laid out on Tuesday steps businesses can take to protect consumers’ privacy. The first is to build security into devices at the outset, rather than as an afterthought. Other recommendations include: vetting partners for how they handle consumer data, taking measures to keep unauthorized users from accessing personal information stored on the network, and monitoring and patching connected devices throughout their expected life cycle. Read More »